HIGH COURT RULING: When the Arkansas Education Television Commission excluded ‘perennial candidate’ Ralph Forbes from the political debates, Ralph took the case all the way to the Supreme Court who ruled recently that the station had the right to bar him. Justice Kennedy said that Forbes "had generated no appreciable public interest." It’s clear that not every candidate should be given equal attention (example - if I ran for president under the Art Revolutionary Party) but what concerns Musea is that both commercial and public tv and radio will use the ruling to rule out all but candidates from the 2 parties. That is a disservice to our country. This little covered story also deserves much more attention in the media than it received.
IF YOU’RE STILL SO NAIVE YOU THINK MTV IS COOL DEPT.: Wall Street Journal says some magazines and newspapers have come under fire for blurring the line between paid advertising and editorial content. At MTV and its sister networks, VH1 and Nickelodeon, the line has simply disappeared, studio advertising executives say. (Corporate Overlord: Viacom). MTV explicitly ties the amount of air promotions it gives a movie to the number of ads the studio buys. Promotions might include contests, parties, cast walk-ons, or a custom made program promoting the movie. MTV adds that its news reports about the entertainment industry aren’t affected by studio ad spending. But statements like that are getting harder and harder to trust when its own "Movie Studio Guidelines" spell out just how the air time for ad revenue works.
MAGAZINE NEWS: Behind the Corporate Art 10 conglomerates are another 10 newspaper behemoths. One of the largest is Advance Pub that recently sold off Random House Pub. This last month it bought the trendy Wired magazine. I’d say expect more ads with the next issue but I don’t know where they’d put them...In a tale equal to an ant and Goliath, the NY magazine The Village Voice has challenged and, through lawyers, won a victory against the Tacoma Voice saying that the Washington State’s title is too close to its own. Never mind the 1,000s of miles between them. They’ve also attracted the Bloomington Voice (Indiana) and the Dayton Voice (Ohio) without success so far...And the long running New Yorker magazine (also owned by Advance) is running into money problems, with an 800,000 paid weekly circulation, it’s still losing almost 1 million a month.
AN UPDATE: The Federal Trade Commission may delay its approval of the German Company Bertelsmann AG (Corp. Art) from buying Random House. One reason is the vocal opposition of the Authors Guild, a group of several thousand published writers, which warns that the bigger merged company would be a colossus that would limit the diversity of books with a 36% share of the book market. Paul Aiken, the executive director of the Guild says, "We’re very happy that it (the merger) is getting a closer look, because this is the marketplace of ideas, and we think this is one market that deserves special protection." Musea does too and that is why we are so virulently opposed to 10 companies running all the arts and electronic media in the U.S. In other pub news, Europeans watch out! Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon(.com) are about to invade. Stay tuned for the results.
FOR DISCUSSION: 100 years ago in Dallas, all roads led to downtown so everyone could come to downtown for dry goods. But those days are long gone so why does all the public transportation in the city have to go downtown? Musea calls for neighborhood buses, buses that circle a neighborhood day and night that lets us all go the stores, shops, jobs, theaters, etc. in our own neighborhoods without having to travel downtown for an hour to do it. What do you think?
MEDIA AND KRAFT FOODS: TCI Cable is working on a pilot program with Kraft to read what shows you watch and then target ads directly to you. Ultimately, targeted coupons and promo materials could be sent to your cable box or special ads could run on your TV set. Now, tell me this isn’t Big Brother coming in the back door! This very little known program was talked about in the mag Media Inc. To anyone who values their privacy, this is alarming.
TREATING CHILDREN AS WALKING WALLETS DEPT.: Corporate Art Cos like Disney, News Corp, Viacom, Warners and others (see list at bottom left) are now promoting children’s books written by celebrities. Children’s writer E.L. Konigsburg says "Just because people had a childhood, they think they can write a children’s book." We agree. The books are lousy, they smell of fame hungry, greedy stars and incompetent publishers trying anything to goose sales. Here’s a few exploiters: Michael Bolton, Shaquille O’Neal (Shaq and the Beanstalk and Six Other Very Tall Tales), Jane Seymour ( Yum! A Tale of Two Cookies) - No, I am not making this up - Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dom DeLuise, Sarah Ferguson, Carly Simon, John Travolta, etc. Usually, children’s writers get $7,000.00 advances, but celebrities are getting $20- 50,000.00. Jamie Lee Curtis (Today I Feel Silly) says she dashes off her books in 10-15 minute spurts. A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR PUBLISHING HOUSES!
Update: The Mattel suit against MCA (Corp Art Overlord - Seagrams) and the Aqua hit "Barbie Girl" has been dismissed by a federal judge...And finally this quote from toymaker Norman Walker: (the big U.S. chains want to know one thing about a new toy) "How much TV advertising will the product get?"
The items here or in Art Surfing with *** have been sent in by Musea’s reporter-at-large Scott Crow. Return to Contents or Home Page